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4.4 National reform through Empowered Communities
In 2015, 25 Indigenous leaders from eight regions
supported by Jawun gathered on the Central Coast
of New South Wales and joined forces to lead
transformational change. Their motivation was borne
of common themes: feelings of powerlessness, and
blindness in decisions and funding investments
concerning their own communities. These barriers
were crippling development and service provision
in Indigenous communities. Sean Gordon, CEO of
Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council, said
: 39From this blindness flows so many of our
roadblocks: doubling up on some types of
services; yawning gaps in other much-needed
services; turf wars; money and resources frittered
away for no gain; efforts that are making a
difference easily abandoned; efforts that are not
effective remaining.
Committing to responsibility-based reform and
greater collaboration within and across regions,
and facilitated by Jawun, they pooled many years’
thinking to develop their ideas. Their principles
for reform were key social norms: children in
school, adults in work, safe care of children and the
vulnerable, freedom from domestic violence and
crime, and family responsibility for public housing
tenancies.
Empowered Communities received bipartisan
support from the Liberal and Labor parties. In 2015,
a report detailing how the transformation could be
delivered was put to government. It was testament to
unprecedented collaboration and common purpose
among Indigenous leaders across Australia. Noel
Pearson said:
It’s never happened before in Indigenous affairs.
We have only ever got together for political
reasons, and then everybody goes to the four
winds and does their own thing. So that’s what
significant about this collaboration across the
eight regions: it is the first time that collaboration
is for reason other than simply some political
crisis or agenda.
Secondees provided strategic and practical
support—such as enabling a shared services model
(see Ngarrindjeri vignette on page 29), helping
new businesses get started (see Wild Eats vignette
on page 41), and finding viable opportunities for
Ngarrindjeri to work on country (see Ngopamuldi
case study on page 44).
When Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority businesses felt
they were being overlooked in public procurement
processes, Jawun secondees from the Australian
Government, EY and Woodside were deployed
to the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority and its
subsidiary, Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting (NRC), to
reshape tender clauses for government contracts.
They registered NRC with the South Australian
Government’s Aboriginal business portal, sought
local council ‘prequalification’, supported proposals,
and developed strong internal tender processes
and probity policy to shore up NRC’s new business
partnerships.
For the first time in South Australia, tenderers are
now engaging directly with an Indigenous nation
and Ngarrindjeri businesses operate on a more level
playing field.
This change enabled NRC to reduce reliance on
government funding by 30% and opened a range
of new partnerships and job opportunities. Luke
Trevorrow, Ngarrindjeri leader, said:
Their collective efforts have supported us to grow,
and to employ Ngarrindjeri to work on our lands
and waters—which our people have done for
thousands of years.
Materially and symbolically, secondees continue to
support Ngarrindjeri people to organise effectively
as a nation, enabling governance, development and
partnership with outsiders based on mutual respect.
This powerful reform is a stark departure from the
past and an optimistic step into the future, which
other Indigenous regions are looking to as an example.
The nation-building agenda
has reshaped how Ngarrindjeri
people engage with opportunities,
outsiders and government. After
suffering unfounded attacks on
our credibility and legitimacy,
it’s an application of true cultural
authority that demonstrates our
resilience and collective strength.
—LUKE TREVORROW,
NGARRINDJERI LEADER
4. ENABLING INDIGENOUS-LED REFORM 53